Poland opens Nairobi trade office to scout for deals

Poland is set to open a trade office in Nairobi as the European Union member seeks to deepen trade and bilateral relations between the two countries.

The incoming managing director of the planned Polish Trade office in Nairobi, Mr Michael Mazurewicz, says the trade office will help Polish companies to better hunt for business and investment deals in Kenya.
“Poland and Kenya have common ground on many aspects of their nationhood and we want to exploit our strengths to deepen the volumes of trade between the two countries,” said Mr Mazurewicz in Nairobi.

The value of the Polish exports to Kenya stood at $78.40 million (Sh8 billion) in 2015 and $28.67 million (Sh2.9 billion) in the first half of last year as per the latest available trade data. Exports to Poland, on the other the hand, amounted to $31.49 million (Sh3.2 billion) in 2015 and $14.76 million (Sh1.5 billion) in the first half of 2016. 

“The trade office will be more than a networking agent and will establish areas of opportunity for Polish firms but also Kenyan businesses,” he said.

As part of plans to support Polish business overseas as well as draw foreign industries to Poland, Mr Mazurewicz said the Polish government had recently overhauled its economic planning departments in Polish embassies including in cities like Nairobi, Shanghai, Singapore, Vietnam, Tehran and Nairobi to include the trade offices.

“The trade office is not a political unit and will therefore be open to all investors. It will coordinate research on business opportunities and organise conferences in Kenya, which bring polish firms to sensitise them on the opportunities here in Kenya,” he said.

Poland, he added, plans to have a total of 60 such offices worldwide, hived off the Polska Agencja Inwestycji i Handlu (Polish Investment and Trade Agency), to help Polish entrepreneurs find and expand into new markets.

Diplomatic relations between Poland and Kenya were established at independence in 1963. The Polish Embassy in Nairobi was opened a year later in 1964. 

Kenya does not have an embassy in Poland. However, the Kenyan ambassador in Rome is accredited to Poland. 

According to head of political affairs at the Polish embassy in Nairobi, Agnieszka Torres de Oliveira, Poland had 51 students from Kenya studying at Polish universities — 29 of them on scholarships from the Polish government in the 2015/2016 academic year. 

Some of the companies from Poland operating in Kenya are mainly in the dairy sector.

Poland is one of the four dairy giants in Europe, selling nearly 70 per cent of the region’s milk even as its farm sizes and dairy herd keep reducing.